Abstract
The Natura 2000 network is regarded as one of the conservation success stories in the global effort to protect biodiversity. However, significant challenges remain in Natura 2000 implementation, owing to its rapid expansion, and lack of a coherent vision for its future. Scientific research is critical for identifying conservation priorities, setting management goals, and reconciling biodiversity protection and society in the complex political European landscape. Thus, there is an urgent need for a comprehensive evaluation of published Natura 2000 research to highlight prevalent research themes, disciplinary approaches, and spatial entities. We conducted a systematic review of 572 scientific articles and conference proceedings focused on Natura 2000 research, published between 1996 and 2014. We grouped these articles into ‘ecological’ and ‘social and policy’ categories. Using a novel application of network analysis of article keywords, we found that Natura 2000 research forms a cohesive small-world network, owing to the emphasis on ecological research (79% of studies, with a strong focus on spatial conservation planning), and the underrepresentation of studies addressing ‘social and policy’ issues (typically focused on environmental impact assessment, multi-level governance, agri-environment policy, and ecosystem services valuation). ‘Ecological’ and ‘social and policy’ research shared only general concepts (e.g., Natura 2000, Habitats Directive) suggesting a disconnection between these disciplines. The UK and the Mediterranean basin countries dominated Natura 2000 research, and there was a weak correlation between number of studies and proportion of national territory protected. Approximately 40% of ‘social and policy’ research and 26% of ‘ecological’ studies highlighted negative implications of Natura 2000, while 21% of studies found positive social and biodiversity effects. We emphasize the need for designing inter- and transdisciplinary research in order to promote a social-ecological understanding of Natura 2000, and advance EU conservation policies.
Highlights
The European Union (EU) Directive on the conservation of natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora (Habitats Directive) and the Directive on the conservation of wild birds (Birds Directive) are regarded as two of the strongest international legal tools for nature protection [1, 2]
Considerable effort was put into reaching agreement on the criteria for a coherent implementation of N2K, involving a series of biogeographical seminars to identify the levels of coverage of species and habitat types for meeting the obligations of the Habitats Directive [1]
We classified articles based on the outcomes of implementing N2K: ‘positive’ (e.g., N2K sites effectively protect habitats and species, N2K policies are effective for protecting biodiversity, people support N2K policies), ‘negative’ (e.g., N2K is not efficient for protecting habitats or species of Community interest, the N2K fail to represent some biogeographical areas, N2K is negatively perceived by people) and ‘mixed’, or ‘no opinion’
Summary
The European Union (EU) Directive on the conservation of natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora (Habitats Directive) and the Directive on the conservation of wild birds (Birds Directive) are regarded as two of the strongest international legal tools for nature protection [1, 2]. One of the outcomes of their implementation was the creation of a set of sites across all the EU member states meant to safeguard biodiversity called the Natura 2000 network (hereafter N2K) [2]. Despite successes in extending N2K [3, 4], and progress towards identifying threats to N2K and priorities for research [5], a coherent vision for the future of these sites is lacking [6], and obstacles remain in implementing and enforcing the Habitats and Birds Directives (e.g., conflicting conservation objectives [7], lack of coordination across member states on methodologies used to assess conservation priorities [8], low penetration of scientific information in N2K management plans [9])
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